Laurie Smith taking on four opponents, including former undersheriff, in bid for sixth term

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2016 file photo of Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith, who is running for an unprecedented sixth term against four challengers, including her former undersheriff. (Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group)

Santa Clara County Sheriff candidate John Hirokawa speaks during the School Safety and Gun Violence Prevention Sheriff Candidate Forum at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, on Thursday, April 26, 2018. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)

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Santa Clara County Sheriff candidate Joe La Jeunesse, right, speaks as candidate John Hirokawa, left, listens during the School Safety and Gun Violence Prevention Sheriff Candidate Forum at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, on Thursday, April 26, 2018. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)

Santa Clara County Sheriff candidate Martin Monica speaks during the School Safety and Gun Violence Prevention Sheriff Candidate Forum at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, on Thursday, April 26, 2018. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)

Santa Clara County Sheriff candidate Jose Salcido speaks during the School Safety and Gun Violence Prevention Sheriff Candidate Forum at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, on Thursday, April 26, 2018. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)

Santa Clara County’s longest-serving sheriff, Laurie Smith, faces her stiffest challenge yet for an unprecedented sixth term that she appears poised to win despite one of the biggest scandals in the agency’s history.

The state’s first female sheriff squares off June 5 against four candidates — including her former second-in-command — amid fierce opposition from her deputies’ union.

“I am the only experienced leader in this race,” Smith said in a statement to this news organization after declining requests for an in-person interview. “I have the vision, temperament, and experience, coupled with a historical perspective, to keep this agency on the right track.”

Her latest term was indelibly marked by the murder of mentally ill inmate Michael Tyree in 2015 at the hands of three jail deputies who were later convicted of murder.

To a large extent, the election has become a referendum on how Smith and the Sheriff’s Office responded to Tyree’s death and hundreds of reform recommendations in its wake. A blue-ribbon commission recommended that the jails no longer be under the Sheriff’s Office’s control while the Board of Supervisors established an independent monitor to evaluate and audit the agency’s patrol and jail operations.

From left, Santa Clara County Sheriff candidates John Hirokawa, Joe La Jeunesse, Jose Salcido and Martin Monica participate in the School Safety and Gun Violence Prevention Sheriff Candidate Forum at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, on Thursday, April 26, 2018. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)

And, for the second straight election, the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association is backing Smith’s opponent — this time retired Undersheriff John Hirokawa — and maintains a no-confidence vote against Smith reached in 2014.

“People are so burned out,” DSA Vice President Roger Winslow said. “Sheriff Smith refuses to work with us. As an incumbent, she is not showing voters why she should have this job.”

In contrast, the Santa Clara County Correctional Peace Officers’ Association — the jail deputy union hit hard by the Tyree killing and deputy arrests — contends Smith is the best choice to reform the jails.

“We have improved so much and would hate to be set back,” said CPOA President Amy Le. “Any change in leadership right now is not good for inmates or the staff.”

Smith responded to the DSA’s opposition as a product of a union that has “hijacked” its members’ voice.

“My door has always been open, and I’m more than willing to meet with those wanting to move this agency forward,” she said.

Smith can claim an array of recent high-profile victories that include the capture of Sierra LaMar killer Antolin Garcia Torres, arrests and convictions in the infamous Audrie Pott suicide and cyberbullying case, and the swift arrests of the three correctional deputies later found to have fatally beaten Tyree.

But jails have been front and center, and the Sheriff’s Office has dealt with an assortment of embarrassing incidents, including multiple escapes of inmates in either jail or court custody.

In addition to the CPOA, Smith’s endorsements include four of the five county supervisors, prominent South Bay labor unions, an array of elected city officials in the county, and 30 state sheriffs.

While the Sheriff’s Office protects only about an eighth of the county’s population, she is chosen by the entire electorate and benefits from her long-running incumbency and name recognition. Smith has never dealt with a runoff since her first campaign in 1998, by regularly garnering more than 50 percent of primary election votes.

Lately, however, Smith has had to deal with the fallout of a 25-year-old story that she interfered with a gender discrimination investigation implicating her by removing a tape recording of a key interview from the office’s Internal Affairs unit.

Smith has admitted taking the tape but insisted there was nothing wrong with doing so. She is now refusing in-person interviews unless the Mercury News retracts its story about the incident. The news organization declined to retract the story, saying Smith had offered nothing to undermine it.

Her most formidable opponent — by endorsements and pedigree — is Hirokawa, who retired two years ago as undersheriff and chief of the Department of Correction. His 38-year tenure nearly rivals that of his former boss at the Sheriff’s Office where he steadily rose through the ranks and logged in time in multiple jobs at the agency.

Hirokawa has acknowledged the high-wire act of criticizing a Sheriff who promoted him as her second-in-command. But he maintains that Smith primarily made the decisions and that he worked with the rank-and-file to keep the agency running smoothly.

“I am not the reincarnation of Laurie Smith. The community desperately wants change,” Hirokawa said. “I’m the person who has the depth of knowledge to bring that change to the Sheriff’s Office.”

Winslow backed that contention, saying Hirokawa was simply “following directions” from on high and that he was a vital lifeline between brass and the union.

Hirokawa is backed by major police and deputy unions in the greater Bay Area region, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, retired judge and blue-ribbon commission chair LaDoris Cordell, and the county Democratic Party.

Jose Salcido brings an eclectic resume, as a former Sheriff’s lieutenant who became an adviser to former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and now to Councilman Johnny Khamis. Salcido also ran for Sheriff in 1998, when Smith was first elected.

He touts his experience working with the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force — considered a national model for gang-intervention programs — and how it highlighted a kind of resource he lamented wasn’t well-known within the Sheriff’s ranks.

“We were missing out in the Sheriff’s Office,” Salcido said. “Where we are now is a product of failed leadership.”

Salcido, a past president of the deputies union, also cites his experience reducing blight with a residential parking program in the Hoffman Via Monte neighborhood in South San Jose as an example of his common-sense approach.

Salcido has been criticized for appearing in a controversial photo at a barbecue hosted by a former Sheriff’s lieutenant and colleague convicted of lewd conduct with two minors. He called the surfacing of the photo a “below the belt” attack and cynical move given the Sheriff’s Office’s emphasis on jail reform and rehabilitation for post-incarceration offenders.

Salcido counts among his backers Reed, Khamis and a host of gang prevention and intervention leaders in San Jose.

Martin Monica has backing by some key community activists with an eye on police accountability. Monica also aims to boost education programs in the jails that have garnered the county spotlight.

“People in jail, they’re going to get out at some point,” he said. “You bring recidivism down with education, if you just give them a chance.”

Monica’s last significant law-enforcement position was an eight-month stint as police chief of Parlier, a small town outside Fresno. He was fired from the job for alleged mismanagement, but he blames it on political retaliation because he arrested one of his own sergeants. He is currently a teacher and previously ran for sheriff in 2010.

The former SJPD sergeant frequently evokes the memory of legendary police Chief Joe McNamara, who pioneered community policing in the United States, a philosophy he wants to bolster in the Sheriff’s Office.

Deputy Joseph La Jeunesse is leaning heavily on his military experience to stump for the job, saying his international exposure has given him a global view of policing. He claims he helped reformed the notorious Abu Ghraib prison and its wide-reaching torture scandal, which he likened to the management of the Santa Clara County jails.

“We need a leadership change from the top-down,” he said.

Boasting an endorsement list headlined by military veterans and veterans groups, he also touts his status as a working deputy to contend that, unlike his fellow challengers, he “still has skin in the game.”

La Jeunesse is uniquely outspoken among the candidates with his opposition to the county’s sanctuary policies and says local law enforcement should not refuse to work with ICE in its pursuit of undocumented immigrants for civil and administrative immigration violations.

He argues that failure to cooperate with ICE in the jails leads to federal enforcement actions in the county’s communities, where even those not targeted get rounded up and arrested.

The sheriff is undaunted by the challenges facing her tenure, with the election and otherwise.

“I am the best person to continue overseeing the jails because at a time of significant change, you need a leader who is experienced in fostering relationships,” Smith said. “We have been able to open the lines of communication with stakeholders to work together towards meaningful reform.”

Meet the Santa Clara Co. Sheriff candidates

Laurie Smith (Incumbent)
Age: 66
Residence: San Jose
Experience: Five-term sheriff; 45 years with the agency, rose to assistant sheriff before
being elected in 1998 to become first female sheriff in state history
Website: sherifflauriesmith.com

John Hirokawa
Age: 61
Residence: Saratoga
Experience: Retired as undersheriff in 2016; 38 years with the agency; served as chief of
Department of Correction
Website: johnhirokawa.com

Robert Salonga is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering criminal justice and public safety for The Mercury News. A San Jose native, he attended UCLA and has a Master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. He previously reported in Washington, D.C., Salinas and the East Bay, and is a middling triathlete. Reach him the low-tech way at 408-920-5002.

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